The Boston Celtics had the undisputed finest roster within the NBA final 12 months, incomes the fitting to flex their record-setting 18th Larry O’Brien Trophy all summer season. Returning for the crew’s first shot at a repeat end, veteran unit guard Payton Pritchard made a daring assertion on behalf of the complete locker room.
“I am most likely the very best general athlete, all sports activities, on the crew,” Pritchard stated, per NBC Sports activities Boston. “… (Jaylen Brown) would possibly assume he is perhaps. (Derrick) White and them, Sam (Hauser), we’ve some good ones however I believe by way of all sports activities I believe I get it, for positive. It is not confidence, it is the reality.”
The query itself was raised after the Celtics spent a bit of their coaching camp time bonding over some non-basketball actions comparable to strolling soccer, wiffle ball, handball and velocity stroll baton go. Pritchard, a assured participant, positively has a run for his cash with rookie Baylor Scheierman having performed quarterback at Aurora Excessive Faculty in Aurora, Nebraska and White having just a few years of little league baseball expertise beneath his belt. However, Pritchard does have the bragging rights of draining a half-court buzzer-beater throughout Recreation 5 of the NBA Finals towards the Dallas Mavericks in June — a shot that’ll ceaselessly stay within the spotlight reel of all-time daggers in Celtics historical past. So… Pritchard’s confidence does, too, include a powerful case of its personal.
Pritchard had a bounce-back 12 months of his personal final season, which started when the Celtics who subjected the 26-year-old to log a career-low 13.4 minutes in 2022-23, signed the undersized Oregon product to a four-year, $30 million extension. Within the snap of a finger, Pritchard set to work proving himself worthy of the payday and did so in a mess of the way. He averaged a career-high 9.6 factors, 3.2 rebounds and three.4 assists, enjoying in all 82 of Boston’s common season video games whereas additionally main the crew with a 4.61 assist-to-turnover ratio — which additionally ranked twentieth within the NBA.
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Rising from an end-of-the-bench scrapper to a respectable function participant, Pritchard eagerly awaits the chance to pitch in as soon as once more and contribute behind the crew’s beginning guard tandem of White and Jrue Vacation.
“I really feel just like the factor that makes us good is we’re all a little bit bit totally different in methods,” Pritchard stated throughout crew media day, per NBC Sports activities Boston. “Even defensively, offensively. Derrick’s a unbelievable shot-blocker. He can contest loopy photographs and he will get in that stuff. Jrue, he is greater, stronger. He can bump within the submit however clearly, the most effective on-ball defenders I’ve ever seen. For me, I really feel like I am extra of like a pest-type — fast. So it is all a little bit bit totally different and offensively we’re totally different too. I am simply glad I get to study behind two unbelievable dudes.”
